After a quick breakfast, we got ready and went to Six Banyan Temple today. (Tuesday) Even though we had hardly slept, it is much less work for us to go out than to stay in and occupy Hailey. Both of us woke up feeling lously from lack of sleep and colds setting in. We jumped in the bus for a half hour ride to this ancient temple. The temple dates back 1500 years and is a Buhdist temple. (James would have loved this). There are many huge golden budhas all over the place. This is kinda the equivalent of visiting Notra Dame or Westminster Abbey here. It is said that having the monk bless your baby is good luck and many people do this here. There is a large tower that can be climbed (if not sick) for a great vantage of the city. (The temple is in the heart of Guangzhou) I knelt down before the monk in the temple with Hailey while the monk chanted for a short while. When he finished the chant, he splashed some water onto Hailey's face and went on the other babies. At the end of the ceremony we went outside and lit incense to complete the ceremony. We really enjoyed it (although Hailey waved to the monk throughout the ceremony). Locals came up to us and gave us oranges, which is a symbol for luck! There are many symbols (peanut, flower, etc.) We witnessed a traditional ceremony in one of the buildings, with locals and monks chanting. It was breathtaking, i wished i could buy the cd. We finished exploring and went back to the bus.
Love Jason, Alex and Hailey.
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3 comments:
Hi Alex, Jason, and Baby Hailey
Sounds like one incredible day!!! What wonderful memories you will keep and cherish with with always. Thanks for sharing your experiences with us. Wishing you all well. Looking forward to seeing you upon your return home. Love you guys lots. Love, Jennifer, Ken, Colin, and Liam. XO
Wow. Sounds beautiful. You're right - James would have loved this. We are amassing quite the Buddha collection these days - we just got a South Asian buddha head for James's birthday! Hope you got LOTS of pics of this.
That's very cool indeed....my time in the Buddhist temples were some of my best memories. Hopefully you got to see some thankas, which are the hand-painted meditations done by the monks in natural paints and gold leaf that depict the various deities of Buddhism...very cool!
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